Like Pablo Design, our designing neighbors to the north in San Francisco, we believe light can transform any space. The Clamp Floor Lamp is one illuminating reason how. A variation on his now-iconic Clamp Lamp series, Canadian-born designer Dana Cannam, now based in Rotterdam, combines the ying-and-yang elements of natural North American hardwood and high-tech LED light in this striking fixture. Choose between light oak with a red cloth power cord, or dark walnut with black cloth cord. No visible hardware detracts from the clean lines. And this floor lamp offers effortless versatility with an angled post for maximum reach, 360-degree arm rotation to put the light where it's needed and an ergonomically positioned hi-low intensity switch. Sustainability was also a design priority, in the minimal use of materials; an LED life that equals 25 years of daily use; and flat-packed shipping ability. It all fits in with founder Pablo Pardo's ethos of timelessness, discarding the disposable mindset so prevalent today.

“Lighting is undergoing a revolution at the moment,” says Venezuelan-born designer/entrepreneur Pablo Pardo, who’s leading the disruption with the mix of cutting-edge technology and always-cool minimalism behind his signal brand Pablo. As he puts it, nowadays, “you can build smarts right into the lamp.” Internationally recognized, the San Francisco company was started 20-odd years ago and now Pablo racks up design awards regularly for its more than 40 technology-driven and elegantly sparse collections worldwide.

The lighting industry thought-leader credits his upbringing in a family of artists and engineers for the always forward-facing Pablo style, which embraces innovations such as LEDs and flat-panel light. “Lighting is also shrinking in size: LEDs are so small that you can put them almost anywhere,” he adds. “So the standard iconography of a lamp with a shade is being upended.”